In search for one’s true self, the adversities that are faced are all dependent on the environment in which the person surrounds himself or herself with. Tobias Wolff demonstrates the struggle of finding a true identity when consumed by such harsh surroundings in his bildungsroman style memoir ‘This Boy’s Life”. Despite each personas dreams of transformation, the memoir depicts each character’s struggles to find their identity given the patriarchal society in which they are exposed to; where men are expected to be masculine and women endeavor to survive against the stereotypes of their gender. Whilst children rebel as a way of finding there personalities.
The 1950s in America was a time in which strong societal values were held and anything …show more content…
The expectation of the post-war society for men is what Jack is ultimately trying to achieve in the memoir, but fails miserably. It is evident that he is not true to himself in his applications to prep school when he claims to be a ‘straight-A student… an Eagle Scout, and a powerful swimmer, and a boy of integrity’. Although he convinces himself of the ‘truth’ of these claims was a truth only known to him; ironically he is also aware that he is a ‘liar’. In his failure to achieve such goal he ‘was [a] subject to fits of feeling unworthy’. Likewise with his unachievable dreams of transformation, he desires to be appreciated by people thus constructs unstable friendships. His relationship with destructive boys made him a rebellious teenager and display male bravado, but was still ‘claimed by uncoolness’. His act of vandalism and transparent façade eventually led to the climax of his personality pulverizing and eventually stealing from the Welches even though he knew they had just as little as him. His dream of ‘self-sufficiency’ is eventually crushed under Dwight’s abusive authority with the constant bullying and eventually physical violence. Just like the beaver that Dwight ran over with a car, Jack is metaphorically run over by Dwight and eventually becomes a shell of himself, albeit the fact that Dwight should have been a proper role model for
The 1950s in America was a time in which strong societal values were held and anything …show more content…
The expectation of the post-war society for men is what Jack is ultimately trying to achieve in the memoir, but fails miserably. It is evident that he is not true to himself in his applications to prep school when he claims to be a ‘straight-A student… an Eagle Scout, and a powerful swimmer, and a boy of integrity’. Although he convinces himself of the ‘truth’ of these claims was a truth only known to him; ironically he is also aware that he is a ‘liar’. In his failure to achieve such goal he ‘was [a] subject to fits of feeling unworthy’. Likewise with his unachievable dreams of transformation, he desires to be appreciated by people thus constructs unstable friendships. His relationship with destructive boys made him a rebellious teenager and display male bravado, but was still ‘claimed by uncoolness’. His act of vandalism and transparent façade eventually led to the climax of his personality pulverizing and eventually stealing from the Welches even though he knew they had just as little as him. His dream of ‘self-sufficiency’ is eventually crushed under Dwight’s abusive authority with the constant bullying and eventually physical violence. Just like the beaver that Dwight ran over with a car, Jack is metaphorically run over by Dwight and eventually becomes a shell of himself, albeit the fact that Dwight should have been a proper role model for